It's been awhile since I've blogged, but I'll explain more about why in a couple of days. :)

For now, I just wanted to share a poem for St. Patrick's Day from one of the most wonderful persons I've had the pleasure to collaborate with, Christine Valtners Paintner.

"The search for love continues even in the face of great odds."

Erin and I moved to this little town called Oil City, Pennsylvania in August of 2020.

I have always been a Cat Person.

And then I became a Pretty Major Rabbit Person.

And then I morphed into a (really predictable) Guinea Pig Person.

But, I never considered that I’d become a Dog Person.

If you would have told me back in the year 2000 when I first started painting that I would still be painting two decades later I would have been very surprised. I’m not always great at sticking with things.

Beyond that, I could not have foreseen that I would intentionally move away from Erie, PA, a place I have always loved living and away from lifelong friendships, to pursue life as an artist in an art community in Oil City.

On Christmas morning a couple of weeks ago, while Erin and I were sipping coffee and wrapping a few last minute stocking gifts, we also tuned in to NASA’s website to watch the very exciting launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.

For the last many years, I’ve had the great fortune of working with Christine Valters Paintner of Abbey of the Arts, a Virtual Monastery and Global Community, on a number of collaborative paintings we call the Dancing Monks Series.

I’ve been wanting to start blogging again for a while now. Over the past year, I’ve opened up my computer on more than one occasion with the intention of beginning to write again. There’s just so much great stuff to share all the time, and I loved writing a blog a few years back.